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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Travelogue 2.1: Cherating '11.

of the Sun, Beach and Turtles.

Jo Yi and I, both fled to Cherating about a month ago(yes, that is how overdue this post is) away from the city, away from the Bersih 2.0-hoohaah, away from work, away from people that we know. It was a random trip that we occasionally take whenever randomness strikes us. So yeah, we've been to pretty much most of the places in Peninsular Malaysia now. Which explains our plans to explore the East Malaysia, so keep your eyes close. We might just fly over one fine day. But as for now, here's how our random road trip went.

I was told by Jason that it was going to be a 5 hours journey from KL to Cherating. Oh, if you're wondering why Cherating, its cause I haven't been there my whole life and also, I missed out my chance to Cherating with Advertlets all thanks to my exams a few months back. So yeah, it has become a must for me to go to Cherating. Cherating would be the perfect place for people who love a relaxing hotel holiday. Why? Cause there ain't anything else to do in Cherating but to relax! So make sure you spend alil' bit more on the hotel that you are staying at cause believe me, it will be worth it.

'Cause it was a random trip, we had problems booking rooms. Most of them were fully booked. So we ended up in a crappy chalet hotel. Since there isn't much to do in Cherating, we both decided to crash most of the big hotels there. We've been to Holiday Villa Cherating, Royale Bintang Cherating and even Club Med Cherating. And honestly, if you are looking for an affordable yet comfortable stay, just head on over to Holiday Villa, Cherating. You can enjoy a 4-star luxury stay with almost the same price that we paid for the crappy chalet I was telling you about. But yes, if you have the budget, just head on over to Club Med. I loved it there. Not only was the place beautiful, the workers there are more than helpful and courteous, the people staying there are also very friendly.

We head on to Kemaman, Terengganu for lunch. Apparently their lekor there is really good according to the GPS. So we were at Che Wan's for lunch where we got to try the local delicacies; the keropok lekor, otak-otak and to our surprise, something named Satar. Everything is made of fish and the Satar and the otak-otak is wrapped with banana leaves and grilled to perfection. I don't really find them appetizing though. Its edible, but definitely not the best lekor nor otak-otak that I have had before cause of pungent fishy smell.

Satar

Lekor.

Other than crashing hotels, we also decided to check out the local tour and the one recommended to us was Hafiz Cherating Activities, or perhaps the only one there in Cherating for that matter. But he is really friendly. They have a line up of activities for tourists like us; Kayaking, River Boating, Turtle Sighting and whatever else that I cannot remember. We've pretty much done most of the activities there, so we've decided to give the rest a pass except for Turtle Sighting which happened to be something that I have always wanted to experience.

So yea, it was my chance to absorb the surrounding, take pictures and relax till nightfall. Ah, Bliss. I've decided to make it a B&W series for Cherating cause I'm very into that effect lately, heck, who am I kidding, more like for a very long time now. So anyways, here it is.

When night came, I was ecstatic. I can't wait to witness how the female turtles lay their eggs and then never to see its offsprings anymore after returning to the vast sea. Its pretty saddening if you ask me, after 3-5 hours of agonizing labor of hole digging, and making sure that its eggs are safe, it will then have to dig another hole as to confuse the predator. Even though the turtles give a rough number of 80-160 eggs each time, only 1-2 survives the harsh environment. I took a video of it and some terrible pictures cause we were couldn't use the flash.

That's pretty much it for my short very much needed getaway. Cherating, though not the best beach that I've been to, it definitely has its charm. This is till my next getaway.